Butterflies Don't Live Long - EP
Inspired by artists such as Federico Albanese, Ólafur Arnalds, Tony Anderson and Dardust, I took to writing a piano based EP, with no more than a few instruments for each track. Butterflies Don't Live Long comes from the idea that even though butterflies only live for a few weeks, we still appreciate their beauty and they're still able to capture our imagination, making summer days even brighter. I extended this as a metaphor for life, in some regards we're here for just a blink of an eye, so we might as well appreciate life's beauty.
The first track on the EP is 'I'm Still Here Waiting'. The title was derived from a poem I wrote inspired by Army of Bones' song 'Don't Be Long', the lyrics 'I'm still waiting for you', uniquely capturing a feeling I was experiencing at the time. It was a kind of loneliness and hopelessness, that the promise which my hope depended on had failed, yet I still believed the promise. As the song says, 'But I know there'll be an endAnd an end will see the stars begin to fallLove will still be here to save us all.'
Following 'I'm Still Here Waiting' is 'We Sat By The Pond' which acts as a contrast, a peaceful painting depicting sitting by an idilic pond, holding hands with a significant other. That was the image which inspired the piece, a sort of peaceful comfort.
The title track is a sort of conclusion to the other pieces. If the songs before were two opposing arguments than 'Butterflies Don't Live Long' is middle ground. It's meant to suggest that even though life is hard, even though we are hopeless sometimes there are good times, times of peace and comfort, so in the end we should see the beauty in life. The conclusion I suppose is that to find an underlying joy we need to fully experience all emotions and through it all find beauty.